A Conspiracy Contradiction at the Washington Times

I wonder if noted conservative writer R. Emmett Tyrell Jr. realizes that he has just contradicted himself in an op-ed in the Washington Times entitled, “Re-examining the RFK Assassination.” Based on a new book by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tyrell is calling for a new investigation into the assassination of Bobby Kennedy to determine if he was killed as part of a … conspiracy.

But according to the two opening paragraphs of Tyrell’s article, he has “never believed in conspiracy theories” because, he feels, it would be impossible for conspirators to keep the conspiracy secret.

But if that’s the case, then why is Tyrell calling for a new investigation into the Bobby Kennedy assassination? If there really was a conspiracy in that assassination, the conspirators, according to Tyrell’s opening paragraphs, would have talked. Since no such talk has ever emerged, that would mean, under Tyrell’s reasoning, that there could be no conspiracy and, therefore, no need to have a new investigation.

But the fact is that Tyrell is wrong. There are conspiracies, especially those involving assassination (i.e., murder), in which the conspirators don’t talk. After all, let’s not forget that a criminal conviction for murder can involve the death penalty or life in prison without parole. Oftentimes that is enough incentive to keep murder conspirators, especially professional ones, silent about what they have done.

Consider Johnny Roselli, a member of the Mafia who was murdered in 1976, just before he was scheduled to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence, which was exploring the possibility of a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. Roselli was the liaison between the Mafia and the CIA when those two entities entered into an assassination partnership in the early 1960s. It’s a fairly good assumption that Roselli did not commit “suicide,” as some of the people surrounding the JFK assassination appeared to have done. That’s because his body parts were found floating in a drum in Miami Harbor. Given the gruesome nature of that discovery, it is also a virtual certainty that more than one person was responsible for Roselli’s murder, which would make it a conspiracy. Yet, no one has ever talked and the murder has never been solved.

The same holds true for Mafia figure Jimmy Hoffa. It is pretty well assumed that he was murdered as part of a Mafia conspiracy. Yet, no one has ever talked.

Consider the U.S. conspiracy to murder American citizens Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi during the Chilean coup in 1973. None of those conspirators have ever talked, at least not publicly, but that doesn’t negate the fact that U.S. intelligence officials conspired to murder them. We know that from a long-secret State Department investigative report that concluded that U.S. intelligence played a role in their murder. But to this day, we don’t know anything more than that, both because the conspirators have kept their lips sealed and also because someone squelched the recommendation in that report for further investigation.

In 1953, the CIA published an in-house manual on assassination, which the CIA was successful in keep secret for more than 40 years. The manual reflects that, early on, the CIA was specializing not only in the art of political assassination but, equally important, also in the art of covering up CIA involvement in the assassination.

As previously stated, in the early 1960s, the CIA and the Mafia entered into a top-secret assassination partnership. Thus, here you had two entities, both of whom specialized in murder and cover-up, getting together to jointly perform a political assassination.

Therefore, why shouldn’t people raise their eyebrows at least a little bit with respect to the political assassinations that took place in the 1960s, especially those in which the victims were sworn enemies of the Mafia or the CIA or both, such as President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, and especially where the facts in the case are bit too pat?

Maybe it’s a good sign that Tyrell, notwithstanding his obvious reluctance to be labeled a “conspiracy theorist,” is willing to take a closer look into the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and that the Washington Times is willing to publish his op-ed about it.

Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education.
He has advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on Fox News’ Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows and he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show Freedom Watch. View these interviews at
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